Not fancy for a liver?

This was a liver testing week for me. This happens if you buy a kilo of offal that your husband doesn’t eat. Following Peter Gordon’s tips on sautéing livers, I went from rumaki through liver and beans to the liver and plum paté. Imagine that you prepare your own homemade paté, you exactly know what is inside and there is nothing artificial! Not mentioning the whole mistery of making a paté! It is a good thing as a spread for a party canapés or simply to go with some cracers. Or with some toasts for the open-air breakfast...

Liver and plum paté

360 g chicken livers
50 ml red wine
5 Tbsp vegetable oil
130 g red plums
2 Tbsp honey
50 g butter salt

1. Wash the livers, remove the sinews. You can cut them into halves so they cook more quickly. Heat up the oil in the frying pan, place the livers when it’s very hot. Fry for a minute or two on one side, or until you see that the upper side changes the colour into some grey brown. Turn over and keep frying for another two minutes. The livers should be cooked through but still pink. Place on the sieve and let it cool down and drip the oil and some juices.

2. Remove stones from the plums, cut the fruits into small cubes, heat up the honey in the frying pan and cook the plums until they start to soften. Remove from the heat and leave to cool down.

3. Melt the butter. Put the livers, butter and wine in the food processor and blend well. Now’s the funny thing. You have to pass the paté through a sieve, using a spatula or by pounding the paté on the sieve with a ladle. 4. The rest is the easy task. Season well with salt, add plums with all their honey juices and mix well. Place in a container. It will keep at least for a week in a fridge. You should get 300 g of your own homemade paté.

Besides did you know that livers are actually more valuable as a source of vitamins, minerals and proteins than the meat itself? Chicken and duck livers are both tender and versatile in using. Apart from these, the best it is said are those of calf, than lamb’s livers. Beef’s, pork’s or sheep’s livers have stronger flavour. It is important to remove sinews and fibres. You can soak livers in milk for getting a fair colour. You don’t salt the livers until it is cooked, otherwise it will harden – a good exception from that is to marinate livers in the soy sauce. Stewed liver with the onion sauce is a classic Polish dish, equally loved and hated. Liver for a living?